It's not for a want of trying that the US did not 'take over' Iraq. You have probably forgotten the one million little US flags that got ordered before the invasion...and the fantasies about US bases in Iraq for the next 50 years...

The Middle East has been declared a US 'free fire' zone, as Tomgram so brilliantly put it.

In other words, the US can and does invade any country next door to Russia that it wants. And set up any missile bases or anti-missile stations that it wants. With impunity.

Russia cannot, period, do that.

Now let's turn to how Russian diplomacy/adventurism operates. Not like American. American policy is short-term impressive. Shock and Awe big shows. Not like Russia. But is Russia therefore weak? No.

The Russians have one big ace card that America does not have: time. Russia is long-term effective. They do not have elections that matter. They do not need to produce results...yesterday...in order to stay in power. This is a great plus for them.

Russia can, for example, wait out the Israel/Palestinian mess until eventually it falls over of its own weight. And that will happen.

This is what I call the Asian 'time' model. Just give the enemy enough time and you will win. When the Crusaders invaded, the Arabs just waited...until...the Christians got destroyed by time...The Russians fought, yes, but ultimately they knew it was winter and distance that would destroy Napoleon...check your history books.

So when America starts one of their theater-style adventures, Russia need only...wait...put a stick in their spokes whenever they can...negotiate and kick their shins under the table...until after all the cards are counted America is down.

This is the dynamic that is going on under your nose, dear Bill.

Russia just needs to 'lean' against America, whilst all the while America drains its coffers providing fast food downtowns to soldiers in Afghanistan, etc.... Until eventually the clumsy giant stumbles.

That is exactly why Russia vetoed the Syria sanctions.

And you can see how your protests that America actually failed at taking over Iraq...are irrevelant. The question was not will America succeed at the adventure. Obviously they won't. The question was, does America have the power to undertake the adventure. It certainly does. That power is what Russia is fighting. And the way things are going now, I would put all my cards on Russia.

Russia does not want US intervention in Syria--and in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and so on--for the same reason that the US does not want Russia taking over South America. Don't want the enemy panting at the door.

The US gets what it wants, and Russian armies stay out.

But not so Russia. Just look around this site to see a map of US bases surrounding Russia from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to Central Asia. Obama would go ape if the Russians were that close!

But be that as it may your comment is very fudged. True, Russia has vested interests. But this invasion of funding certainly does prove Russia's explicit warning. So what if Russia cared?

Doesn't the US military know how wrong it is to go around burning the Koran? The worldwide condemnation of that Florida minister who did so wasn't enough?

Obviously our military is not up to the ABC's of their job. If there's one thing the military has to do it's keeping good ties with the host country. This is military conduct going back to before Alexander the Great.

As much as I cannot stand Obama I think he did the right thing apologizing. I only wish he could provide some leadership as well as following behind sweeping up the mess his staff makes.

This is very useful and should be better known. My gripe is the cherry-picking.

Right wing Rabbis often call for things like the expulsion of all Palestinians, or the destruction of Iran. Are they criticized too? No.

Christian pastors often denounce Islam as Satanic -- even though it has no idols or even images in its liturgy, a far cry from many Christian churches. And even though the Moslems do a vastly superior job of following Biblical morality than Christians do, whether you agree with it or not. AIDS statistics do not lie. Are the Christians denounced for these ad hominem attacks? No.

Please study the Middle East more. This mistake has already been made once. Saddam Hussein could also easily have proven he had no nukes. The fact that he did not do so was enough 'evidence' for the West to make probably the most stupid war ever fought.

They did not understand the Middle East mentality. Honestly taking your pants down and showing the enemy you have no weapons...is worse...than DEATH!!!

Um, smell the coffee. Obviously after being lied to, plied with massaged numbers and tricks, smothered by cover-ups, and had smoke blown in their face for generations, the American people have finally wised up and stopped believing anything the official pipeline wants them to believe. Including things that might be true, who gives a hoot.

I'm going out on a limb (and I'm going to check back to this post in 6 months or a year to see if I was right) and labeling this cancellation literally a crack in the side of the US/Israel pleasure boat bigger than the one in the Costa Concordia.

A disaster.

It follows too suspiciously upon the recent revelation that the murder of the Iranian scientist was a 'false flag' operation by Israel falsely incriminating the CIA as the perpetrators.

America does not take kindly to their country and spies being threatened. You know the history.

And it's tied to America's crawl-down from threatening Iran lately. Including withdrawing an aircraft carrier from Hormuz right out from under the skirts of the last Iranian military exercise.

Therefore I'm putting all of my chips on a withdrawal of any US support for attacking Iran. And other military ventures the Israeli government has set out for them.

That includes the US telling Israel straight that an attack on Iran will get a complete goose egg of support from the US. Enough to deflate even the puffery of a few Ayalons over there.

So. If Israel attacks Iran, or if the US re-arms and threatens Iran more, I'm going to look like that goose. And if not, remember, you saw it first here on JC's great site.

There's a mistake here and as someone who lives in Israel I must put in my two cents: you are pretending Israel works like America. It does not.

In the US advertisers really try to represent their customers and reflect something about them. Tactfully and to the point. So an ad program like this would be a big insult, because it would imply that that's what Israelis really think about Americans.

But Israeli ads do not 'represent' the way US ads do. The daily advertising fare in this country is so over-the-top, in-your-face, over done, and other ways exaggerated to the extreme, that it long ago lost touch with reality. The ads are crude, grotesque caricatures. Restaurants show people stuffing food into their face. Toilet cleaners feature a crude picture of a toilet with the product with over-sized logo on it held inside.

So an Israeli program to say 'come home' will rightly go far overboard in every way to make the point, as these ads do.

The truth is the opposite: Israelis worship the US. They drool over it. They copy the US in every way they can. This is just quite overdone of an issue, this ad thing, if you ask me, because US people do not understand Israeli advertising.

This article is no surprise to people who have been reading Professor Cole's blog the last 2 or 3 years.

Nobody knew better than Cole how deep the Arab basketball was being held under water by the US and the other powers enabling people like Mubarak et al. And nobody knew better how much pressure was pushing up on that basketball from the bottom than Professor Cole.

You can hold a basketball under water for as long as you want, but sooner or later it's going to pop up.

So keep listening. Prof Cole says the sky is not falling. self-determination will be better for the Arabs, better for the US, and better even for Israel than the "just sit on the powder keg" plan of supporting all the Mubaraks of the Arab world.

This is a brilliant article, especially linking the students' protests to the 'neoliberal' draconian cuts-in-action that drive education costs through the roof.

While the fat cats get richer.

I particularly recommend Juan's unusual ability to link fact to fancy--dollar changes on the ground produce concrete social movements in a one-to-one linkage in his science. And he's right on. In all his commentary you see this.

By the way, where'd that great term 'neoliberal' come from? It's the current administration's failings in a nutshell. Did...the great Juan...coin it all by himself??

Something needs adding. Every time you take away a piece of any country's puzzle you must know what is going to replace it.

Israeli governments always project the half-true, half fantasy siege mentality, Arab threat, and Palestinian threat in order to maintain their narrative. It's not incidental that the old time Israeli line was always יהיה טוב!‏, 'It will be good!' i.e., later, while now it is not so good.

All Israeli governments have used the victim narrative to cement authority and build popular support for abusive government and business policies.

Therefore. Take away problems with the Palestinians and the neighboring Arabs, and who will the Israeli government have to blame for all their problems? And their failure to provide basic standards? (i.e., dumping most sewage untreated into the ocean, failure to provide European levels of education and income, desperate road shortage, immense percentages of land locked out of the market under government ownership and byzantine impossible laws...?)

The country will have to find other bugaboos, and fast. Iran? Who else? Their own selves?

I'm talking about the fighting couple that after the psychiatrist gets them to act normal toward each other break up because there's no 'action' any more.

Fixing the Pal problem will leave a gaping hole on the game board that must be filled and it would be good to know by what.

Redd's argument is less than naive or childish. It is totally blind to the realities of people. People want jurisdiction over Jerusalem because they want it to be theirs, not just because they want to fix the potholes in it. Recommending split jurisdiction as an acceptable agreement because it can physically work is like recommending that two women share the same man because he can physically switch apartments every night. Just because it is physically possible does not mean that any one in their right mind would accept it.

As a Jerusalem resident I can tell you that the first thing people want to do is exactly what caused the problem in India: tear down the other's, and build theirs. Potholes. Really.